Growled, on 28 February 2013 - 00:14, said:
I genuinely enjoy using third party start menus because you get more features with some of them than you would get if Microsoft offered one. It's fun trying them all.
I don't mind Start8, I think it's better than the Win7 menu and integrates with Modern apps well. Typically, I don't like using 3rd party apps for basic functionality. They also add a layer of troubleshooting when something doesn't work. Many of the GUI enhancers could have compatibility issues in the past. I never really liked many themes more than those in Windows anyway.
I think people use/d them because they were left with no choice. Want to change more than the basic desktop icons, third party app. And so it is with Start menu.
I think the main problem is MS took something or things away people found useful and the Modern UI on top of the Desktop Environment is a kludge and can be annoying/irritating. Modern UI search is terrible in the opinion of many, me included. Lack of context menus is horrendous but really doesn't affect the desktop environment at all. I'm not sure why people feel the need to vehemently defend obvious and blatant shortcomings in many areas of Windows 8. The ecosystem and developers were clearly not ready for RTM.
I think MS is pulling an Xbox RRoD. Release it now for marketing, fix it later. Only problem, there's much more competition (tablets) and devs need money too, they may never come if it doesn't proliferate with "consumers." Yet it is the latest version of Windows and will sell lots by default.